The cynics, who have seen far too many greedy, entitled, arrogant athletes in recent years, will no doubt grouse if Kam Chancellor forgoes his senior season at Virginia Tech in favor of an NFL paycheck.

The cynics, however, never saw the way Chancellor ate lunch in middle school, stuffing his face in the cafeteria because he was unsure how much food awaited him at home.

If he does decide to leave after only an average junior season, some will dismiss him as just another player with no interest in school who thinks he's better than he really is.

If Thursday's Orange Bowl against Cincinnati really is his final college game, the temptation will be to lump Chancellor in with all those head-scratching stories of players who left college when they should've stayed.

But there's far more to the story behind many of these kinds of decisions.

Chancellor, a Maury High graduate, is a solid student who loves school. He wants, as much as a game-winning tackle, to become the first person in his family with a college degree.

Chancellor doesn't think he's better than he is. He knows he's probably best suited to be a strong safety, where he can level ball-carriers. He admits in helping the team by playing free safety this year, he has at times been confused in pass coverage and occasionally overzealous trying to make open-field tackles.

He would prefer to come back to Tech next fall, graduate, get better and improve his draft stock. Why, then, is he even considering the NFL now?

Because he is the man of his mother's house in Norfolk's Park Place - a government-subsidized house in which Chancellor shared a room with his three brothers. Because he remembers those lunches in middle school and sweeping the floors at Kumasi Johnson's barber shop on Colley Avenue from age 10 to 14, a child trying to help support his family.

His mother, working two or three jobs at a time, raising six children on her own, needed help. Fair or not, little Kam was - and still is - the best option. Johnson, who used to cut the four boys' hair for the price of one, hired Chancellor when he could see the family needed more income.

"They turned to him to be like the father of the house," Johnson said. "I used to live where he grew up. It's a very bad place. He could've easily sold drugs or been around there stealing, doing a lot of things people do to take care of their family. But he chose, when he was still a little boy, to come to the barber shop and work for it.

"All he has ever wanted was to take care of his family the right way, and he's a hero for it around here."

Chancellor has never known his father. Doesn't even know how to spell his name. The only correspondence he's ever had was about two years ago, when his grandmother called and asked if Chancellor could drop his father off in Charlottesville one day on his way back to Blacksburg. Chancellor declined.

What could he possibly have to say to the man who left his mother to scrape by and Chancellor to learn about being a man from what he overheard at the barber shop?

"He was always the quiet, observant one," Johnson said. "He'd listen to what those old cats were talking about at the shop, and later he'd ask me to tell him what it all meant. Sometimes, he'd ask me, 'Why is my mama doing this?' And I'd try to explain women to him from a man's point of view.

"I tried to explain life to him from a man's point of view, because he didn't have any of that."

Chancellor, though, tried to give his brothers the strong male influence he lacked. With the money he made at the shop, he often bought clothes and shoes for himself and the boys.

Whenever he had enough cash, he'd buy them food, too.

"I saw my mom struggling," Chancellor said. "There were so many of us that one set of groceries she got, it would be gone in like one or two days. It was just hard to get meals, for real. I'd just try to eat a lot at school. I'd go back and get seconds, and whatever my friends didn't eat, I'd probably take that."

But there were days when Chancellor had given too much to his brothers and ran out of money to buy his own lunch. He'd show up to work at Johnson's shop looking stressed.

After some prying, Johnson would learn that Chancellor was hungry, slip him 10 extra dollars and admonish him: "Just ask! You can't study hungry, boy. I can't help everybody, but I can help you, and you can help everyone."

Those words have echoed in Chancellor's ears for years. He wants to help his family, his neighbors. Help everyone.

He wants to put lights on the recreational field in Norfolk where he learned to play football. When this season began, Chancellor thought those lights might be right around the corner. So did his coaches.

Tech's secondary coach, former Hokies All-American Torrian Gray, said in August he thought Chancellor would become the greatest safety in school history.

It made sense, given his impressive 6-foot-4, 225-pound physique and a stellar sophomore season in 2007 as strong safety.

"I thought it would be a no-brainer: He'd have a great year, he'd be a top-30 pick and, 'Hey, man, nice work. You're ready,' " Gray said. "But he didn't end up having that type of year. I guess the transition was a lot harder than I thought it would be for him."

Chancellor has sent in his paperwork to the NFL advisory committee to see where he might be drafted if he leaves after this season. Despite his prototypical size, speed and athleticism, the news isn't likely to be good.

He missed 12 tackles in the season opener against East Carolina and was the culprit on a handful of blown plays that hurt the Hokies at key times this season. He has intercepted just one pass.

Finally, in the last month of the season, Chancellor's new position started to make sense to him. He and his coaches believe next season could be a big one if he comes back, and Gray has advised him to stay.

"He has progressed tremendously," Gray said. "He's playing now, at the end of the year, the way we thought he'd play from the beginning. He would really help himself by coming back. I still think he can be a star."

Chancellor said he's 90 percent sure he'll return to Tech for his final season of eligibility. Of course, if the NFL folks project him based solely on potential, take a look at his 40 time and chiseled frame and the way he explodes through opposing players, if they somehow tell him he could be drafted in the first three rounds, meaning hundreds of thousands of dollars...

Johnson thinks his protege will stay. He said Chancellor's mother - she declined to be interviewed for this story - has told him not to rush after a paycheck for her sake.

Johnson also knows Chancellor likes to finish what he starts. There were nights at the barber shop when Johnson was eager to get home and he had to wait for Chancellor to sweep up every last hair.

"It was always, 'Just let me get this done,' " Johnson said. "He likes to do everything in phases. He likes to complete everything. I don't think he'll go in the draft because I think he wants to master that free safety position.

"And just like his mom was telling me the other day: Kam has always looked out for everyone else. Now she wants him to have the best life for himself. She wants him to make this decision for him."

So maybe he'll stay. But if Chancellor does go, can anyone who knows his story blame him?

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